Abstract:
This study investigates the determinants of smoking prevalence and examines the impact of socio-economic status and smoking related factors on smoking behavior among male adolescents in Anuradhapura district of Sri Lanka. This study was conducted from January 2020 to July 2020 with 100 adult males obtained through random sampling technique and the respondents who aged above 21years were taken as the sample. The collected data were analyzed using frequency, chi-square test, ordered probit model, and marginal effects. Frequency analysis reveals that 15% of the adult males had never smoked, 27% of them had occasionally smoked, and the majority (58%) of them were daily smoke. Ordered probit regression model was used to examine the determinants of smoking behavior and its results indicated that among socio- economic factors, education level, status of employment, place of residence were positively while age, civil status, income and family size were negatively impact on the smoking habits. Among influence of other factors, expenditure on smoking, age starts to smoke and influence of friends were positively impact on smoking habits except smoking status of family members. Further, determinants of smoking prevalence was examined when the number of cigarettes taken as dependent variable in the poisson model and zero – inflated poisson models. Vuong test is done to compare the two models and obtain the result proved that the Zero-inflated Poisson regression is more suitable for modeling the frequency of smoking habits than poisson model. This study suggests the need for essential strategies and public policies which promote higher educational attainment and motivate the smokers to reduce and
cessation the smoking habits in future
